Copy Recordings From HDR-FOX T2 to Foxsat HDR Freesat

New Member

Hi,
I'm new to the forum and I've been scouring through it (without luck) for an answer to a question I have about copying recordings between two Humax boxes.
I have the Freesat box at home and I have been looking for a way to watch NHL when the new season starts. It would seem ESPN is the only way to get this in the UK which obviously isn't available on Freesat.
My parents have the Freeview box so I was thinking about buying them an ESPN subscription as a present.... .
If I were to do this and record the programs I was interested in is there a way to transfer the recordings to my Freesat box so I could view them at a later date?
Ideally I'd like to do this across the internet so I'd considered attaching the Freeview box to the internet and FTPing the file across to my computer. Would I then be able to upload the files to my Freesat box (via USB to avoid mods) and play them? Or are there format/encryption issues around doing this?
Any help would be much appreciated
Dave

Member

Wow, quite a challenge. I guess all the above is possible but maybe not practical. So to break it down you would need to:

-Install modified firmware on your parent's HDR and install the web interface and auto-unprotect.
-Make the web interface available over the internet - it may be possible by configuring their network/broadband router if it has this functionality.
-Use the web interface from your computer and select download option
-copy to USB and on to your box (may require conversion)

Possible issues:
Booking the recordings - don't think this can be done via the web interface yet.
Making the web interface available over the internet - could use VPN so you are connected to their network or the router may act as a server.
Sending over the internet - upload speeds tend to be much lower than downloads, so this will be the limiting factor e.g. if you both have 10Mbit/s connections with 1Mbit/s upload speed then at most you will downloading at 1Mbit/s which equals about 450MB and hour or approx 3-4 hours per hour of SD recording.
Not sure if these paid for services would have any extra security which may tie recording to the box/subscription

New Member

Thanks for your reply Moppet,
Was hoping to not have to modify their HDR as any issues with the box thereafter would be blamed squarely on me! My understanding was that FTP was available on this model as a standard feature but are you saying that any files I copied off would be protected and therefore unusable anyway? I thought it was just the HD recordings that were encrypted?

I see your point about upload speeds I hadn't considered it would take so long, the recordings are likely to be about 4 hours long so thats around 16 hours of upload time. Not too much of a problem if I do this overnight and overrun into a weekday morning though I suppose.

With recording I am happy to use the standard program record feature and then manually kick off an upload the next day.

May contain traces of nut

Correct. This has been the main thrust all along - to find ways to bypass the various protections in the Humax operation.

At the moment the only ways you have to extract decrypted recordings from an unmodified HDR-FOX T2 are for StDef only: to use the remote control handset to copy a recording from the internal drive to a USB drive*, or to use a DLNA streaming client (XMBC) to locate the mediaID reference for the recording in question and then access the file by faking a DLNA access (again only any good for StDef as a HiDef stream would be sent by DTCP). It is just possible that you might be able to make a fake DLNA access work across the Internet if you set up a VPN, but have you considered the uplink speed on a home broadband connection?

* Actually, this does work for HiDef as well if you Foxy the .hmt file first, but I don't think you can spoof the DLNA stream to avoid DTCP for HiDef without hacking the internal database.

May contain traces of nut

The data rate would never support live streaming (don't forget we're talking about an up-link here), but I imagine you could do a very slow download that way.

Here's another idea: if you could have a PC running locally, you could log into it remotely and take control (can't remember what you call it), buffer the file onto the PC (as you would if you were on the same network as the Humax), and then (more easily) copy it across the Internet from there.

New Member

May contain traces of nut

Take a look at the pinned topics at the top of the forum listing - they will sort you out.

No, I don't think XBMC (google it) will save a file, but the information it gives you about the DLNA link will allow you to construct a http link to access the file and save it from a browser or the simple utility wget.

New Member

Tried a test on this yesterday. I manually copied a short recording to USB from the Freeview box and then tried to copy it onto the Freesat box at home. The Freesat box doesn't list any files when I browse to the USB but they are definately there because I can see them from a PC. File format of the USB stick is FAT. There are three files on the USB with the following extensions - .hmt, .ts and .nts

Slightly Pickled

Administrator

The Foxsat uses different formats for the hmt and nts files to the HDR so you will probably have some success if you remove all of the files apart from the .ts
Otherwise, does Raydon's AV2HDR program accept .ts files as input? If so, it will be able to create you a set of files that will be usable on the FoxSat.